Leadership Team

Mark Masselli: Founder

Mark Masselli is president, CEO, and founder of Community Health Center, Inc., Connecticut’s largest provider of medical, dental, and behavioral healthcare for the underserved. A Middletown, Conn. native, Masselli founded CHC in 1972 with a group of community activists.  CHC currently provides team-based primary care services to more than 150,000 patients at 200 sites across Connecticut and is an innovator in the delivery of primary care to special populations. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, CHC was called upon by Connecticut’s executive branch to build and operate the state’s largest drive-through mass vaccination sites.  Masselli led this historic effort, during which CHC administered more than 500,000 vaccines. In addition, CHC organized hundreds of mobile vaccination clinics, bringing vaccines directly into the most vulnerable communities. Masselli serves as board chair of the National Institute for Medical Assistant Advancement and of the national e-Consult provider ConferMED, is the Chair-Elect of the Board of Directors of the national School-Based Health Alliance, and is a member of the Goodspeed Opera House Board of Trustees. In 2022, he was appointed to the State of Connecticut's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Working Group. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Wesleyan University in 2009 for his work in the healthcare field.

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Margaret Flinter: Clinical leader

Margaret Flinter is Senior Vice President and Clinical Director of the Community Health Center, Inc. and is a family nurse practitioner by profession. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from the University of Connecticut, her Master’s Degree from Yale University, and her doctoral degree at the University of Connecticut. She was the recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellowship from 2002-2005. In 2021, she was honored with a Yale-Jefferson Award for her steadfast dedication to providing healthcare services for those in need.

CHC’s first nurse practitioner

Following her graduate training at Yale University, Margaret joined the Community Health Center in 1980 as a National Health Service Corps Scholar and CHC’s first nurse practitioner. Since 1987 she has held both clinical and administrative leadership roles in the organization and established the Weitzman Center for Innovation in Community Health and Primary Care as the “research and development” arm of CHC. She serves as the Director Emeritus of the Weitzman Institute. Margaret is also the founder of America’s first nurse practitioner residency program that operates out of the Community Health Center. It is a national model for nurse practitioner preparation for service in primary care environments. In addition, Margaret is the Chair of the Board for the National Nurse Practitioner Residency and Fellowship Training Consortium. She also serves as a Trustee of the  ABIM Foundation, created by the American Board of Internal Medicine to develop and implement projects in support of its mission to advance the core values of medical professionalism as a force to improve the quality of health care.

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Daren Anderson, MD

Dr. Daren Anderson is a general internist and has worked in safety net practices for his entire career. He is VP/Chief Quality Officer of Community Health Center, Inc., a large, multisite community health center providing primary care to over 145,000 medically underserved patients across Connecticut. Dr. Anderson is also President of the Board of Community eConsult Network (CeCN).

Dr. Anderson was Director of CHC’s Weitzman Institute, a research and innovations center dedicated to improving primary care for underserved populations, for eight years.  The Weitzman Institute leads a range of initiatives focused on practice transformation and workforce development and has created an eConsult process that is now being used across Connecticut and in ten additional states. In addition, Weitzman researchers are engaged in a range of research projects focused on health disparities, telehealth, and pain and opioid abuse treatment in primary care.

Dr. Anderson obtained his undergraduate degree at Harvard College and his medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his residency training in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Dr. Tichianaa Armah, a Bronx, NY native, graduated from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in psychology and received her Medical Degree from the University of Rochester, the home of the Biopsychosocial model of health care. In her final year of residency at the Yale School of Medicine, she was the American Psychiatric Association Minority Fellow while serving as the chief resident of the Hispanic Clinic at the Community Mental Health Center.  Dr. Armah is the Chief Psychiatry Officer at Community Health Center Inc. She is driven to increase access to quality mental health care for our most vulnerable populations. To achieve these goals Dr. Armah's mission is twofold: community engagement and training the next generation in the mental health field with an integrated approach in primary care settings.  Wellness and mental health in all communities has been an important element of her work since the early years of her training. Concern for particularly disadvantaged communities bearing the greater burden of disease, including African Americans and Latino populations, led her to be one of the early organizers of the Yale School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry's Social Justice and Health Equity curriculum. She remains an Assistant Clinical Professor in the department. Beginning in medical school, she facilitated workshops incorporating physical and mental well-being through approaching lifestyle change, with lectures, exercise, and cooking lessons at a local church for the members. She continues to approach her local communities and patients with her fundamental value of overall well-being as key to mental health, believing strongly that medication alone is rarely the solution. She can frequently be found in schools and churches talking about the mental health field to encourage more underrepresented minorities to enter the field.  Her most recent efforts also includes increasing access to psychiatry through tele-psychiatry services from experienced mental health professionals. 

She was recently honored by the Connecticut Psychiatric Society with the Roger Coleman Memorial Award for her exemplary devotion to patients and commitment to quality care.

Mary Blankson, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, FAAN

Mary Blankson DNP, APRN, FNP-C, FAAN is the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for Community Health Center, Inc., overseeing diverse nursing services across the CHC network, including primary care, health care for the homeless, and school based health services. As CNO she ensures the quality and expansion of nursing services, the development of nursing policy, and continuing nurse education. Mary also works collaboratively to ensure Joint Commission and Patient Centered Medical Home compliance throughout CHC.

Building upon her service in various mission organizations, Mary continued to develop her passion for meeting the needs of the underserved by earning her MSN at Yale University in 2005. Mary joined CHC as a family nurse practitioner shortly after graduation. While at CHC, Mary has served as the On-Site Medical Director of the New London County Sites, the Vice President of the Medical Staff, the Chair of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, and has served as a preceptor for CHC’s Nurse Practitioner Residency Program. She completed her DNP education at Johns Hopkins University in 2015 with her capstone focusing on “Increasing Identification and Treatment Referral of Individuals with Hepatitis C (HCV) in the Primary Care Setting Through Clinical Dashboards.” Mary is certified and holds professional membership in the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. She continues to support various quality improvement projects throughout the agency to increase the visibility of nursing’s contribution to the Medical Home. In 2017, Dr. Blankson was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree by Quinnipiac University School of Nursing for her contribution to nursing and for helping meet the health care needs of the underserved.

Ho-Choong Chang, MD

Dr. Ho-Choong Chang is the Chief of Pediatrics of Community Health Center, Inc., the state’s largest Federally Qualified Health center providing care to over 145,000 medically underserved patients, of which approximately one third are children.  In this role, Dr. Chang oversees the delivery of high quality, evidence-based health care to our pediatric population.  With an emphasis on integrated, team-based care, Dr. Chang collaborates closely with the Chief Medical Officer and the chiefs of Behavioral Health, Dentistry, and Nursing to coordinate multi-disciplinary pediatric focused care.  Dr. Chang also serves as the On Site Medical Director of Connecticut Pediatrics @ CHC in Hartford as well as a clinical preceptor in our pediatric APRN residency program.

Dr. Chang earned his undergraduate degree in psychobiology at Yale College.  Prior to entering medical school, Dr. Chang served in the first Teach For America corps and taught science to eight graders in Brooklyn, NY, where he was awarded the school’s Teacher of the Year Award in his first year.  He received his medical degree from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and completed his pediatrics residency at the University of Washington, Seattle Children’s Hospital.  With over two decades of experience, Dr. Chang has cared for children in a number of roles including pediatric hospitalist, urgent care physician, and primary care provider.  He was voted Philadelphia Magazine’s Top Doctors in Pediatrics in 2018 and 2019.  He was also voted Inside New Jersey Magazine’s, Top Doctors for Children’s Health in 2015 to 2018.

Veena Channamsetty, MD

Dr. Veena Channamsetty is the Chief Medical Officer of Community Health Center, Inc. In this role, she is responsible for the clinical leadership of a large staff of medical providers and caregivers for Connecticut’s largest Federally Qualified Health Center. She is responsible for the delivery of evidence-based medical standards, the medical staff recruitment and retention, and provider affairs. Dr. Channamsetty oversees the clinical and non-clinical training, orientation, and onboarding for all new CHC medical providers. With the vision of a stable and solid medical staff, Dr. Channamsetty coordinates clinical care with provider professional interests, promoting provider well-being and work-life balance, overseeing clinical and non-clinical affairs of Physicians, APRNs, and Physician Assistants. Dr. Channamsetty is the President of the Medical Staff and the Chair of the Medical Quality Improvement Committee. She is a clinical preceptor for the APRN residency.  Dr. Channamsetty works closely with the chiefs of Behavior Health, Dentistry, and Nursing to promote interprofessional and team based care. She is responsible for ensuring Joint Commission and Patient Centered Medical Home compliance throughout CHC.

Marwan Haddad, MD

Marwan Haddad is the Medical Director of the Center for Key Populations. He joined Community Health Center, Inc. in July 2006. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College and his medical degree from McGill University. He completed his family medicine residency at University of Toronto and obtained his Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. He is board certified in Family Medicine. He is certified by the American Academy of HIV Medicine as an HIV specialist. He was also the recipient of the 2011 Primary Care Leadership Award presented by the Connecticut Center for Primary Care. Dr. Haddad is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at Quinnipiac University. Since January 2012, Dr. Haddad has led the CHC Project ECHO HIV, Hepatitis C, and Buprenorphine programs which expand the integration of these programs not only within CHC but nationwide. This model of care utilizes didactic and case-based learning via video conferences with medical providers, offering ongoing support, consultation and guidance to aid in delivering care to the HIV, Hepatitis C, and opioid using populations. In 2021, Dr. Haddad was named Chair of the HIV Medicine Association.

Moreover, Dr. Haddad has taught and lectured at state and national conferences on HIV, Hepatitis C, medication assisted treatment and substance use management, and integrated care. He has published research on the integration of medication assisted treatment such as buprenorphine in community health centers examining both substance use as well as primary care outcomes.

Kathleen (Kasey) Harding

Ms. Harding began her career at CHC as the Director of the Ryan White Program. Since then, she has taken administrative and programmatic responsibility for Healthcare for the Homeless (WYA), Hepatitis C, and TEACH–BMT Programs. She was responsible for the development & implementation of CHC’s HIV prevention and PrEP programs, providing health care services for vulnerable populations.

Yvette Highsmith-Francis, MM

Yvette is the Vice President of Community Health Center, Inc.’s Eastern Region. Yvette has worked with CHCI for 28 years in a variety of capacities. In her current role, she oversees eight of the fourteen CHCI locations in New Britain, Enfield, Hartford, Middletown, Clinton, Old Saybrook, New London and Groton as well as the School Based Health services across the state.

Yvette has been instrumental in the openings of the CHCI locations in Enfield, Waterbury and Bristol. In the early phases of her career, Yvette worked directly with countless individuals and families providing support to address the social determinants of health and to improve the quality of life for those she worked with.

Committed to the elimination of racial/ethnic health care disparities; Yvette works diligently to ensure that the community’s most vulnerable residents continue to have access to quality medical, dental, mental health and school-based services and that those services are delivered with dignity and respect. Yvette is actively engaged in the communities she serves and is committed to public and civic service in her personal time as well. Yvette currently oversees Community Advisory committees and is the co-chair of the PCMH+ Oversight Committee.

Yvette is a graduate of the UCLA/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Executive program as well as the Connecticut Health Foundation’s 2009 Health Leadership Fellows Program.

Yvette was a Martin Luther King Scholar at Long Island University and received her Master’s Degree in Management from Cambridge College. She has received recognition on the local, state and national level for her work with individuals living with HIV and AIDS. She has received numerous awards and recognition for her work within CHCI and in the community at large.

Jane E. Hylan, MPH

Managing more than 170 programs statewide, Jane enjoys the opportunity this position offers to oversee programs and staff that deliver barrier-free, comprehensive primary, dental and behavioral health care to students in a variety of Connecticut communities.
Hylan began her career in the human service field. For more than 20 years, she served as a member of the administrative team for an agency that supports people with developmental and physical disabilities. After completing her Master’s degree, Jane served as residential director at a residential treatment facility for emotionally disturbed adolescents and taught middle school students at risk for failure.

Hylan earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology at Salem State College in Salem, Mass., and a Master’s in public health from Southern Connecticut State University. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist.

R. Timothy Kearney, PhD

Dr. Kearney earned his BA with a combined major in Psychology and Spanish Literature at Yale University and pursued graduate work at Fuller Theological Seminary where he earned his MA (Theology) from the Graduate School of Theology and his Ph.D. (Clinical Psychology) from the Graduate School of Psychology. He has also completed the post graduate Primary Care Behavioral Health training program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester. He is a licensed psychologist in Connecticut.

He joined the Community Health Center behavioral health staff in 1998. He is the author of Caring for Sexually Abused Children: A Handbook for Families and Churches (Intervarsity Press, 2001). In addition to administrative and clinical leadership of the Behavioral Health programs at CHC, Dr. Kearney supervises and trains postdoctoral psychology residents, co-leads psychotherapy groups with students and younger staff to train them in the provision of child group therapy, and provides direct client care with the clinical focus of providing care to children and adolescents and their families, especially those impacted by medical illness, trauma, and abuse.

Michael Posocco

Mike was Director of Facilities for Lawrence & Memorial Hospital and Westerly Hospital within the Yale-New Haven Health system. There he managed a staff of 48 and directed all aspects of facilities planning, operations and compliance and provided oversight of utilities, engineering and safety services. His YNHH colleagues noted that he is a goal-oriented team builder.

Mike has also worked as Director of Facilities and Engineering at St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury and held the same position at Johnson Memorial Medical Center in Stafford Springs. At Johnson Memorial he was promoted to director based on his leadership responding to a generator failure and patient evacuation during Hurricane Irene in 2011.

Michael S. Rohde, MHSA

Michael Rohde joined the Community Health Center, Inc. in 2011 after serving 40 years in Executive Management positions in non-profit agencies serving children and families. Mike’s role with CHC is to engage with community providers to improve health care access to community resources, assist with CHC events and activities, help to develop robust site Advisory Councils, and assist with service expansion.

Mike Rohde’s leadership in the field of child welfare included tenures as President of the Connecticut Child Caring Association; Chairman of the Connecticut Association of Non-Profits; Chairman of the Connecticut Association of Human Services, and Vice Chair of the Connecticut Commission on Children. As a community leader, Rohde provided leadership for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life; Meriden Puerto Rican Festival; Dr. Martin Luther King Scholarship Breakfast, Meriden Black Expo; Project Graduation, and the Meriden Farmers Market.

In 1989, Rohde was elected to the Meriden City Council serving 18 years before being elected for three terms as Mayor of Meriden. Mike played a key role in the Flood Control Project, the downtown redevelopment effort, and the establishment of the Linear Trails.

Rohde received his B.A. in Economics and Psychology at St. John Fisher College, and Masters in Human Services Administration at Antioch University.

Mette Smith is the Vice President of Practice Administration at Community Health Center. In this role, she is responsible for all aspects of practice operations in support of the strategic mission, including excellence in service delivery, patient experience and access. Mette leads cross-functional teams to improve practice performance across all of CHC’s health center locations.

Mette has years of experience in healthcare system operations, process improvement, project management, training, employer services, quality and acquisitions. Prior to joining CHC, Mette was Director of Process Improvement and Operations at PhysicianOne Urgent Care, where she was responsible for the integration and management of PhysicianOne’s partnerships with Yale New Haven Health System and Tufts Medical Center. She also led the acquisition of 7 new locations. Prior to joining PhysicianOne, Mette was the Process Improvement Coach at ProHealth Physicians where she created and delivered workflows that resulted in high quality, efficient, patient and family-centered care.

She is guided by a strong philosophy of achieving positive outcomes through critical thinking, team collaboration and employee development.

Mette earned her Master of Management, Strategy and Leadership from Michigan State University and graduated from Albertus Magnus College summa cum laude with a degree in Business Management. She is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Amy Taylor, MS

Amy Taylor is the Vice President of the Community Health Center, Inc.’s Western Region, which includes mobile, school based and fixed sites in Stamford, Norwalk, Danbury, Meriden, Bristol and Waterbury. Amy joined CHC in 2011 because of her belief in promoting the health and wellness of all people, including those typically marginalized and disenfranchised from health care. At CHC, Amy has been actively involved in the daily operations of the practices, with a focus on making improvements in workflows and processes to enhance patient experience and improve health outcomes. Amy also serves as Deputy PI on the All of Us Research Program, which is a National Institutes for Health initiative that seeks to accelerate health research by collecting multiple data points from one million people living in the United States, creating the largest health data resource ever.   

Recognizing that the social determinants of health play a significant role in the wellness of a community, Amy is engaged with many local and regional associations that aim to improve the social and economic conditions of the cities within the Western Region.  She leads Community Advisory Councils in each site in the region and is the co-chairperson for the Oversight Committee for the PCMH+ Initiative at CHCI. Amy graduated from Bowdoin College as a James Bowdoin Scholar and Phi Beta Kappa and earned her master's degree in organizational leadership from the University of Denver. She is a George Washington University Geiger Gibson Capstone Fellow and a Dartmouth-trained Microsystems coach.

Sheela Tummala, DDS, MPH

Sheela Tummala, DDS, MPH is the Chief Dental Officer for the Community Health Center, Inc. Prior to joining CHC in 2006, Dr. Tummala worked as a general dentist at Meri Care Dental in Meriden and also served as an onsite dental director since 2006. Dr. Tummala also worked in her own private practice in Woodbury until 2015. 
 
In her role at CHC, Dr. Tummala treats patients, supervises staff, and maintains the goals and needs of the staff. Dr. Tummala also serves as the Dental Quality Improvement Chairman for CHC, where she is responsible for conducting meetings, writing policies, maintaining quality improvement, and assessing the needs for quality improvement from the patient and staff perspective. 

Dr. Tummala has served on a number of committees such as the Electronic Dental Records Committee where she was responsible for the creation of templates in open dental and consent forms. Dr. Tummala, who has a passion for research, was involved in the research study “Side effects of Triazolam in Children” published in American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry 21:1, 1999. She is also involved in organizing many events such as the Mission of Mercy events at CHC.
 
Dr. Tummala completed her DDS degree at New York University and her General Practice Residency at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, N.Y. She also completed her MPH at Western Kentucky University. 
 
She says her favorite part of providing dental services to CHC patients is “Patients appreciating the work you do for them, changing their smiles, and helping to take them out of pain.”

Dr. Tummala also loves to sing, dance, hike and cook! 

Gary Wallace is Director of Community Engagement and Relations at Community Health Center, Inc. In this role, he is responsible for leading CHC’s statewide strategic plan for building healthier communities and addressing health equity through strong and responsive local, regional and statewide partnerships.  

Gary was previously an operations specialist in the US Navy, and joined the City of Middletown Police Department in 1994, rising through several promotions to the rank of Captain.

Gary has deep roots in the community. His civic involvement extends to many state and national organizations, including service on the boards of directors of the Community Foundation of Middlesex County, Middlesex Health, the North End Action Team, Gilead Community Services, and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. He has served on advisory committees at CHC, Wesleyan, and Middlesex Community College. He mentors youth through the Middlesex Chamber, is active in the Middletown PBA Pipes and Drums, and is a member of American Legion Post 75. Gary has been recognized for outstanding community service by numerous organizations, including the Mayor’s office, Middletown Public Schools, the CT Coalition Against Domestic Violence, CT Sexual Assault Crisis Services, and 100 Men of Color.

Jessica Welt, PsyD

Dr. Welt is the CEO & Clinical Director of the Child Guidance Center of Southern Connecticut (CGC) and joined Community Health Center Inc.’s leadership team when CGC became an affiliate in January 2020. She continues to provide administrative and clinical leadership to CGC’s programs that provide mental and behavioral health services to children, adolescents and families in Lower Fairfield County.  Dr. Welt is also a clinical supervisor in the APA Accredited pre-doctoral psychology internship program, specializing in training interns and staff in risk assessment and crisis management, grief, trauma-informed care and group psychotherapy.

For over 15 years, Dr. Welt’s career has focused on crisis intervention and the treatment of trauma, beginning as FEMA Crisis Counselor in New Jersey providing in-home therapy for children and families impacted by the events at the World Trade Center on 9/11.  She has since been trained in several trauma specific evidenced based models of treatment, including Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for PTSD, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and Attachment, Self-Regulation and Competency (ARC). Prior to her work with CGC, Dr. Welt worked as a staff psychologist in a variety of clinical settings, including hospitals, school based mental health and college counseling centers, and in private practice, conducting diagnostic assessments and providing psychotherapy to children, adolescents and adults with a wide range of mental health problems and families experiencing significant challenges.

Dr. Welt graduated from Tufts University with a B.A. in Child Development and earned her doctoral degree from The Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She is a licensed psychologist in Connecticut and New York.